Oak Creek Academy

📚 Reminder: August 10–14 is a Non-Academic Week for Oak Creek Academy. There will be no school during this time.

We hope everyone enjoys the break, and we look forward to welcoming our students back on Monday, August 17! 💚

Please note that Oak Creek Academy and Education Connection will be closed Thursday, August 13, and Friday, August 14.

As outlined in our handbook, we close each year during the two business days before Killeen ISD returns to school. This closure has also been included on our door posting since May and has been part of our annual schedule for many years. It simply falls on a Thursday and Friday this year rather than a Monday and Tuesday, as it has in recent years.

Our staff will use this time for professional development, and our Education Connection team will also have a much-needed opportunity to thoroughly clean, organize, and refresh classrooms before the new school year begins.

The closure was accidentally omitted from the previously shared calendar. We apologize for the oversight and have attached the corrected calendar here.

We made the news again! Great things happen here!

Oak Creek Academy, a Killeen school serving students with special needs, is preparing for a significant shift next school year. Director Dr. Tracy Hanson said 76 percent of the school’s 141 students will receive state Education Freedom Accounts — known as TEFA — in the coming year.

🔗 kwtx.com/2026/08/03/texas-education-freedom-accounts-local-families-navigate-new-school-choice-program/

📅 Oak Creek Academy School Calendar

We’re sharing a picture of our school calendar here for a quick, at-a-glance reference!

Keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow for an email with a shareable Google Calendar link. The link will allow families to easily view important school dates, closures, events, and reminders throughout the year.

We hope this makes keeping up with everything happening at Oak Creek a little easier! 💚💙

💚💙 Thankful Thursday at Oak Creek! 💙💚

Today, we’re sharing some of the amazing staff shout-outs submitted this week!

The big moments matter, but so do the small ones—the helping hand, the encouraging word, the quick check-in, the shared laugh, or simply being exactly where someone needed you to be.

We are so thankful for a team that continues to show up for our students, families, and one another with patience, flexibility, kindness, and a whole lot of heart.

Take a look at this week’s shout-outs and help us celebrate the incredible people who make Oak Creek such a special place! 🦦✨

We’re officially getting into the groove at Oak Creek! 💚💙

This week has been full of pairing, connection, laughter, and some truly amazing friendships beginning to form. One of the most beautiful parts of inclusion is watching our students simply see each other as friends—not as labels, diagnoses, or differences.

They are learning together, supporting one another, finding their people, and showing us every day that belonging happens when everyone is welcomed exactly as they are. 🦦✨

We also celebrated our incredible staff with Crumbl cookies because they absolutely crushed another week! 🍪💪

What a wonderful way to end the week!

💚💙 Oak Creek Staff Shoutouts! 💙💚

We have so many incredible people showing up each day with kindness, patience, flexibility, and heart. We’re excited to begin sharing some of the shoutouts submitted by our OC team!

Families, we would love to hear from you too! Has an Oak Creek staff member made your child feel welcomed, supported, encouraged, or understood? Send us a shoutout so we can help celebrate the amazing people who make OC such a special place. 🦦✨

Submit a staff shoutout here: https://forms.gle/XeG2uaXN7WJtmd3T6

💙💚 A Little Oak Creek Thought About Grace 💚💙

At Oak Creek, we know that every student and every family walks through our doors carrying a story.

Some days feel easy. Some days feel overwhelming. Some days, children are ready to learn, parents feel organized, and staff members have everything running smoothly.

Other days, simply arriving, communicating, regulating emotions, or making it through the day takes every bit of energy someone has.

We cannot always see what another person is carrying.

A child having a difficult morning may not yet have the words to explain what they are feeling.

A parent who forgets something may be managing more than we realize.

A staff member who needs a little extra time may already be balancing the needs of many students and families at once.

We all have limits. We all make mistakes. We all have days when our best looks different than it did yesterday.

The grace we hope to receive is also the grace we should work to offer one another.

Grace does not mean ignoring concerns, removing boundaries, or avoiding accountability. It means approaching one another with kindness, patience, and the understanding that we are all human.

We can ask questions without assuming the worst.

We can address problems without assigning blame.

We can hold boundaries while still showing compassion.

Oak Creek is a community built on inclusion, understanding, growth, and partnership. That partnership is strongest when we remember that students, families, and staff are all working toward the same goal: helping every child feel safe, supported, valued, and successful.

Today, may we give ourselves grace for what we could not accomplish.

May we offer grace to others for the struggles we cannot see.

And may we continue building a community where kindness and accountability can always exist together. 💙💚

First day moments. 💙💚

I just LOVE these pictures from today.
After so much planning, preparing, reading, meeting families, learning student needs, and getting ready for a new year, there is nothing quite like seeing it all come to life.

The smiles.
The laughter.
The play.
The support.
The friendships already beginning to form.

For some of our students, getting to this first day has been a journey. That makes these moments of joy, connection, confidence, and belonging even more meaningful.

And our staff reflections from today say it best:
✨ “I love my class.”
✨ “My students are amazing.”
✨ “Students were well supported.”
✨ “Our kids didn’t even want to go home!”
✨ “I was able to bond with the kiddos and get to know them.”
✨ “My new kids get along with each other really well.”
✨ “Everyone had such a positive attitude going into today.”
✨ “I had so much help and support from my amazing aide and other teachers.”
✨ “We worked through the speed bumps together.”

That is Oak Creek. Not perfect. Not always easy. But full of heart, teamwork, problem-solving, grace, and a whole lot of kids finding their place.

We are so thankful for the families who trust us, the staff who show up with their whole hearts, and the students who made our first day so special.

What a beautiful start to the year. 🌿